Mask
by Cheeseburger of Doom
Summary: Atobe plays dressup! Actually, it's all a dream -- but the dream symbolizes something that haunts the dreamer in real life. ?xAtobe


A/N: I wrote this fic because I wanted to see Atobe play dress-up. I'm serious. The first outfit appeared in about two billion fic ideas, until I finally gave it one of its own, that it actually fit into. This fic is kind of silly, but I think the ending's pretty cute. My sister warned me against posting this but I couldn't resist doing it anyway, just to share the Atobe cosplay. (hey, it rhymes!) Oh, and they're on a first-name basis now because they've been together for years.

Have fun!

****

Mask

There's someone walking in front of me. It's Atobe Keigo, and he's wearing...something. It's a fancy version of a playboy bunny outfit. He's wearing a miniskirt with a white puff of a tail attached to the back (he's got his back to me, I think for some reason he wants me to look at his ass), he's got bunny ears on his head, and he's wearing fishnet stockings and fishnet gloves that go up to his elbows. His shirt is silver and sparkly...and see-through. He's wearing...sparkly silver platforms, and a sparkly silver anklet.

There are bells on his gloves. That disturbs me most of all.

Of course he looks good, but who convinced him to wear _that_?

He turns around to face me, and he smiles at me. A real smile, not the smirk that I'm used to.

Then, he's not wearing that_ thing_ anymore. He's wearing the outfit he used to wear to play tennis in junior high, but it doesn't fit him properly anymore. He doesn't seem to notice. He's shaking his tennis racket at me. Maybe he's angry about the outfit he was just wearing. I see his lips moving, but I can't hear what he's saying, even though he's right in front of me.

The tennis racket turns into a snake, and he is suddenly dressed as a snake-charmer, turban and all. The snake begins to dance for him, while he plays his music. Its dance is mesmerizing. I watch it...and I blink when the snake disappears.

He is now wearing a nurse outfit.

"Let ore-sama take your temperature," he says. The smirk I know so well is back on his face now. He reaches out for me. I back away. This is disturbing.

Something looms up behind him. It's his former minion, Kabaji, who he used to order around in junior high, and even in high school.

"Don't let the patient escape, Dr. Kabaji," he says.

"Usu."

I am being chased by Dr. Kabaji down a very clean and white hallway. Dr. Kabaji is wielding a meat cleaver as he chases me.

Atobe Keigo is cackling.

"It's time for the operation!" he tells me.

I don't want to have the operation.

I'm falling. Falling and falling, into an endless abyss.

He appears again. He has wings, now. Two glorious white feathered wings. It's a beautiful sight. He reaches out his hand, and I grasp it. He carries me away, and sets me down on solid ground. My savior.

I start to thank him for saving me, but he's turning into a monster with red eyes, and dripping fangs.

"Ore-sama is going to eat you..." he hisses, and he comes after me.

I run away again.

I wonder why he's addressing himself as ore-sama, since he stopped doing that a long time ago. He's never stopped smirking, though.

I look behind me, and he is no longer a monster, he is a little boy, eyes overflowing with tears, as though he's just lost his best friend. I stop running.

I ask him what's wrong.

"You keep running away," he replies. "I hate you!" And he runs away from me.

This time I have to do the chasing.

I yell for him to stop, to wait, but he won't stop running. With every second that passes, he grows another inch, until he stands as tall as I know he is today.

Finally, he stops. I stop behind him, panting, trying to catch my breath.

He turns around, and he's wearing a long, black cloak. Like Death. He has a scythe, too. He raise it, as if he's going to chop off my head. "I hate you," he says again.

And then...the scythe disappears. He drops to his knees beside me, and looks into my eyes. Then his smirk returns, and he pushes me.

I'm falling again. 

This time, I land. I don't feel any pain. 

I stand up, and find that I can still walk. I'm not dead, even after falling such a long distance. I look up, and can see him waving at me from above.

"I don't really hate you!" he calls down to me.

He's stopped referring to himself as ore-sama...what does that mean?

What does any of this mean?

He's climbing down after me, but I don't want to talk to him right now. I start to run again.

"Wait!" he cries. "Wait for me, Kunimitsu..."

I keep running.

"Come back! Please...I love you!"

~~~~~

I wake up in a cold sweat, and look at the person lying next to me. Atobe Keigo, in all his glory. Even while asleep, he still wears that smirk.

In real life, he would never do any of the things he was doing in my dream. He definitely wouldn't dress like that. I wonder where my mind got all of those ideas? Some of them were quite interesting, but also fairly disturbing.

In real life, Keigo would never say I love you...

We both wear our masks in the waking world. His mask is one of conceit, and mine is one of indifference. They've been in place for too long, and now they cannot be removed. We've been molded into the people we are today, and we accept that about each other.

We've been together for years, but we still can't say "I love you". Those words would not suit either of us, and the masks we've been wearing since we were children.

I reach out to touch him, to see if he's real, and if I am really awake this time. He catches my hand. He's awake.

"You were calling my name," he says. "Were you dreaming about me?"

"Maybe," I reply. I lay back down. He rolls over, props himself up on his elbows, and looks at me.

"What was the dream about?" he asks.

"I can't remember," I lie. "All I know is that it was strange."

"Not sexy? I'm disappointed." He's pouting. I have to smile at that. He really is cute when he pouts, even if it's a childish thing to do.

"I think it was a good kind of strange," I say, to console him. He chuckles, and drops back onto his pillow.

I pull him close to me. He sighs, I think in contentment, and soon he's fast asleep once more.

"Oyasumi, Keigo," I whisper.

I stare at the ceiling for a while, thinking. Thinking about all the years we've spent together, and about how long it took for either of us to get over ourselves enough to actually enjoy being in the other's company.

We've come this far, so maybe one day we can get even farther.

I slip back into the crazy dream, where we can tell each other how we feel -- because there are no masks in the dream world.


End file.
